Following a spate of government shutdowns of major bus companies that offered

Following a spate of government shutdowns of major bus companies that offered service between Chinatown and Boston, and other routes, new safety regulations for intercity buses went into effect last week in the city, reports Downtown Express’ Kaitlyn Meade. Could this help reinvigorate Chinatown bus services?

“When Fung Wah closed, [business] kind of died down. It’s not picked up since then,” said an employee of the Diamond Hill Cafe, located near the ticket booth of the now-shuttered bus company.

Fung Wah Bus had been the largest Chinatown-based bus operation but was closed down in March after they refused to give their safety records to the Department of Transportation. When it comes to non-stop bus service between Boston and Manhattan’s Chinatown, only YO! Bus, operated by Greyhound and Peter Pan, remains.

“Most people don’t know the depth and breadth of the impact on the area. Chinatown is a hub — a giant transportation hub,” said Wellington Chen, president of the Chinatown Partnership Business Improvement District.

Chen said that the buses connect to 233 routes, transporting between five and six million people per year. The buses make relatively short commutes to Boston, but some lines can be found that transport people all the way down the East Coast to Atlanta, Georgia and Orlando, Florida.

Chen is optimistic about what the new regulations could mean for Chinatown buses.

… [He] thinks that the legislation will improve the climate for buses in Chinatown by making them more reliable and allowing them to compete with bigger companies that have benefited from closing Chinatown routes, such as Greyhound, which operates BoltBus and has recently opened a Chinatown service.

Councilwoman Margaret Chin was behind the recently-passed legislation, which came after a major bus accident two years ago.

Chin, who sponsored the new city law, believes the legislation, which requires the city’s Department of Transportation to provide a link to intercity bus safety records on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety website, will encourage bus companies to play by the rules by making sure passengers have easy access to safety records before purchasing a ticket. The push by her office to regulate bus safety standards began in March of 2011, when a passenger carrier crashed in the Bronx, killing 15 people.

YO! Bus may still be operating but their future is not any clearer.

“Right now, it’s almost all gone. Big companies shut down, now only small companies,” James Sun, the ticket agent, said about Chinatown bus travel. “We don’t know if we’ll be next.”

http://www.downtownexpress.com/2013/06/19/new-bus-regs-but-few-chinatown-companies-remain/